UN chief welcomes North Korean plan to close nuclear site

May 14, 2018Updated: May 14, 2018 8:42am

Photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta, AP

FILE - A combination of two file photos shows U.S. President Donald Trump, left, in Cleveland, Ohio, May 5, 2018, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right, in Panmunjom, South Korea, April 27, 2018. The June 12 meeting between tough-talking President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, a brash young ruler with a nuclear arsenal, brings a bombastic set of personalities to the small island nation, which has hosted plenty of important meetings, but nothing as big as this.

FILE - A combination of two file photos shows U.S. President Donald...

BERLIN (AP) — The head of the U.N. is welcoming an announcement by North Korea to close its nuclear test site and says he's also looking forward to the U.S.-North Korean summit.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters Monday in Vienna that "the irreversible closure of the site will be an important confidence-building measure that will configure to further efforts towards sustainable peace and verifiable de-nuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."

North Korea said Saturday it will dismantle its nuclear test site in less than two weeks, a dramatic event prior to leader Kim Jong Un's summit with U.S. President Donald Trump next month. Trump welcomed the "gracious gesture."

Guterres says he is looking forward to "this positive momentum being consolidated at the summit between the leaders of the United States and North Korea."